LARI DM— GULLS. 



26s 



BLACK-HEADED GULL, in SUHtinCr, 1/6 



Black-headed Gull : Larus ridibundus. Locally, " Cob," 

 and " Peewit Gull." 



A resident, though local, uncommon and partially migratory. It 

 still breeds on the coast at several spots, though in much smaller 

 numbers than it ^■^>>->. _ ^ 



used at one time. "^^ — s-^--^ ^ 



It is now the only 

 Gull breeding 

 with us. Dale ^ 

 speaks of it (2. ^g 

 402) as the " Pe- 

 wit or Blackcap," 

 the former name 

 being still some- 

 times used in Es- 

 sex. 



It does not often 

 appear inland in the 

 county during sum- 

 mer, but on June i6th 

 1883, I saw a party 

 of five Gulls— pre- 

 sumably of this species — fly over here in an easterly direction. On May 1 2th, 

 iSSo, I saw a pair of Gulls, I believe of this species, fly over Saffron Walden, 

 and on August 20th in the following year Mr. Travis received a young bird of the 

 year shot near the town. Edward Doubleday states (15) that he met with it at 

 Epping "in a very exhausted state, after long stormy weather." Great numbers 

 frequent the Mucking Flats during winter (Sackett). 



The earliest record we have of its breeding in the county is that of Fuller, 

 who in his Worthies of England (1662, p. 3l8)-says : — 



" There is an island of some two hundred acres, near Harwich, in the parish 

 of Little Okeley, in the manour of Matthew Gilly, Esquire, called the Piiit Island 

 from Puits [which are] in effect the sole inhabitants thereof. Some affirm them 

 [to be] called in Latin iipulir, whilst others maintain that the Roman Language 

 doth not reach the name, nor [the Roman] Land afford the bird. On Saint George 

 his day [April 23rd] precisely (so I am informed by Captain Farmer of Newgate 

 Market, copyholder of the Island) they pitch on the Island, seldom laying fewer 

 than four, or more than six eggs. Great [is] their love to their young ones. 

 For though against foul weather they make to the mainland (a certain Prognos- 

 tick of Tempests), yet they always weather it out on the Island when hatching 

 their j-oung.ones, seldom .sleeping whilst they sit on their eggs (afraid, it seems, 

 of Spring-tides) which signifieth nothing as to securing their eggs from the inun- 

 dation, but is an argument of their great Affection. Being [;>., when] young, 

 they consist onely of bones, feathers, and lean flesh, which hath a raw gust \_i.e., 

 taste] of the sea. But Poulterers take them then and feed them with Gravel and 

 Curds (that is Physick and Food), the one to scour, the other to fat them in a 

 fortnight, and their flesh thus recruited is most delicious." 



Four years later Merrett, who calls it the " Pewit," says (182), " Insula quae- 

 dam ab iis nomen fortitur in Essexia. Haec enim migrant praecise ad diem. 

 Divo Georgio Sacrum." Two years later, Charleton, in his Onomasticon Zoicon 



